Liszt: Transcendental Study, S139 No. 11 'Harmonies du soir'

BIS is proud to present a new disc from star pianist Yevgeny Sudbin who here combines works by Liszt, Ravel and Saint-Saëns under the themes of Love, Delirium and Death.

Funérailles is Liszt’s elegy for his Hungarian countrymen who died in the 1849 uprising against Habsburg Rule. Death also appears in Ravel’s depiction of a hanging – Le Gibet (The Gallows) from Gaspard de la Nuit – and closes the programme in Saint-Saëns’ Danse macabre.

Love is present in the Petrarch Sonnets – originally song settings of poems in which Petrarch immortalises, the object of his unrequited passion – and Ravel’s Ondine – the tale of a water nymph tempting a mortal to join her in the depths of the lake.

Delirium is present throughout the disc, especially during the nightmarish portrait of the goblin Scarbo.

Yevgeny Sudbin has received considerable critical acclaim for his recordings on BIS. His disc of music by Scriabin was described in BBC Music Magazine as being ‘as terrifyingly changeable and emotionally all-engulfing as the music itself’.

A dazzling selection of Liszt performances – the great virtuoso pianist of the nineteenth century interpreted by a pianist in the Russian virtuosi tradition.

Recorded between 1987 and 2003, this set contains live recordings from Carnegie Hall, New York and Suntory Hall, Tokyo.

Even Emil Gilels and Sviatoslav Richter were in awe of the young Lazar Berman, who astounded the world with performances of superhuman dimensions. However his talent was long kept a locked up secret in the former Soviet Union, before he was permitted to travel abroad. His appearances in the West were sensational, resulting in concerts with von Karajan and recordings for DG. The live recordings on this 2-CD set span from 1950 to 1972 and catch him at the peak of his powers, and these were gigantic. His performance of the Sonata, Dante Sonata and especially the selection from the Transcendental Etudes shows not only his phenomenal technique but also his great sensitivity, beauty of tone (even in the biggest fortes) and innate poetry. A tribute to an exceptional Liszt player.

On a new Hybrid SACD the celebrated American pianist Martin Berkofsky performs a fascinating selection of works for solo piano by Franz Liszt including the Étude d’exécution transcendante Nos. 7 and 11, the Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12, and the Pater Noster from Harmonies poétiques et religieuses S 173.

The pianist Martin Berkofsky was born in 1943 in Washington, D.C. but is of Belarussian ancestry. He is known primarily for his interpretations of the music of Franz Liszt and Alan Hovhaness, and has performed extensively throughout Europe as well as in Turkey and Armenia. In 1971 he met the composer Alan Hovhaness when he performed one of the composer's works, and many Hovhaness performances followed. Hovhaness gave many newly-composed and unrecorded scores to Berkofsky who over the next decades recorded a number of discs of his music. He has made numerous recordings for major labels including Sanctuary/Black Box, Koch International, Crystal, Vox, Nimbus, and Angel.

As a performer Martin Berkofsky feels particularly at ease with the poetic world of Liszt. For him playing Liszt is almost an experience of mystic contemplation. The numerous, often radical changes that he makes to the original text should therefore be seen in this light since what counts most for him is not the notes in themselves, but the space that lies between them.

Claudio Arrau imbued the music of Liszt from his early teens on, when studying in Berlin with the famous Martin Krause, himself a student of Liszt.

Arrau, a serious and deeply intellectual mind, abhorred the empty-headed and sometimes vulgar Liszt playing in fashion in his youth. For him this music is deeply human, able to express everything in men’s heart and psyche. Fidelity to the score is the key to the true interpretation of Liszt. The legendary 'Arrau sound', with its deep and ringing sonority, gave Liszt’s piano music an unheard spectrum of emotions, lifting it to a higher spiritual level.

Arrau made many recordings in his long lifetime. His Liszt recordings, made at an advanced age for Philips in the ‘70s and ‘80s are landmarks of profundity and beauty. In his younger years, however, Arrau was an astonishing virtuoso, displaying a jawdropping technical command. In his concert performances he took more risks than in his studio recordings, which to some sound ponderous and selfconscious, often on the slow side.

Piano Classics is happy to release some rare and historic live performances of Arrau: exciting, red-hot performances of great technical brilliance, and yes: (sometimes dangerously) fast! It contains one of the best live performances of the Sonata ever put to disc.